By T. Austin-Sparks
The Revelation of Christ
READING: Gal. 1:15-16; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:15-16,24; Col. 3:10.
The phrase which I feel is to engage us at this time is that in Eph. 2:15 - "one new man". But before we speak about that specifically, there is a word which must lead to it.
The question that is exercising many hearts today is that which relates to the need, the great need, for a recovery of the original freshness, vitality and power of Christianity. Many are concerned with this matter. How can that original freshness, vitality and power be recovered amongst the Lord's people? It is in seeking to answer that question, at least in part, that I think we should find some profit. But we must, of course, ask why it is that that freshness and vitality is lacking. What is the reason for its absence? What is it that accounts for the present state of things which is so different from what it was at the beginning? Do you not think, dear friends, that, while the answer may be a very much wider one, it can be answered in this way, that the present vitiated state of things spiritually in Christianity is so largely due to the fact that Christianity has become almost entirely a tradition, a fixed system, a system of doctrine and of practice crystallized and formed and presented as something from the outside to be accepted, adopted, and conformed to. Christianity has taken a fixed shape. It is an "it", and you are called upon to accept that "it" which is Christianity. When we have recognized that, I think we have got really to the heart of the matter, because in the beginning and in principle throughout the New Testament everything was a master of a living inward revelation of a Person; for whenever God has moved to take some fresh step in relation to His purpose, His comprehensive purpose, He has always done so by giving a new revelation in an inward way.
A Revelation of the Lord the Way of Progress
It was a great step in that purpose of God when He brought Abraham into fellowship with Himself. "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham" (Acts 7:2), and that is only saying in other words, "it pleased God to reveal..." In principle it was a revelation that came to Abraham of the God of glory. It was that revelation of the God of glory that emancipated Abraham and resulted in all that came in and through Abraham as a link in the chain of God's eternal purpose.
It was true of Moses; and Moses represents another step on the part of God, a fresh movement in His purpose. God appeared unto Moses in the burning bush. He saw the Lord; he had a vision of the Lord; that meant everything to him. I think we should not be wrong in saying that many times in the life of Moses when pressed hard, under stress, in temptation, trial, suffering and adversity, in the difficulties of the way, he called back that original vision. He called to mind that day when he saw the Lord in the flame of the bush. The Lord appeared unto him. It was something which remained in his history as basic. He would say, On that day I saw the Lord, I came into living touch with the Lord, it pleased God to reveal Himself to me!
So we might go on with one after another and find it true in every case. Isaiah will say, "I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple" (Isa. 6:1).
It was true in the New Testament. The disciples had to base everything upon the forty days after the resurrection - "We have seen the Lord". That is what the Lord meant by it. He appeared after His resurrection by the space of forty days and they saw, but in another way, in a spiritual way, in a way in which they had never seen Him before. It was in a living way.
Paul certainly based his whole history upon this; "it pleased God to reveal his Son in me". He could say, I saw the Lord.
